> Stupidly, I labored under the illusion, that once you see 3815 films, you’ve pretty much seen it all. How delightful to be so wrong!

*

. Poor, jaded me.

. Such an experienced film connaisseur that I was endanger of engendering snobbery. I went to film school you see… like a million years ago, in the Jimmy Carter era. I was the projectionist at the Bijou there, where I first experienced so many eye-opening mind-blowing cinematic enemas like Jordowoski’s THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, and Alan Renaisis’ LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, that (along with Ingmar Bergman’s CRIES AND WHISPERS) re-defined for me, what a film could be.

. I haven’t been lucky enough to see anything that knocked my socks of intellectually in cinema since I discovered the singular work of Mike Leigh about a decade ago. When I rented BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!, I was laboring under the wildly misdirected notion that I was about to see a documentary about marketing in the mass media. Man, could I have been more off base? I found the film in the Sunday Chronicle’s A CRITICAL CONSENSUS database, rated a hefty 8.2, so I had been seeking it out for some time. Within three minutes of starting the film, I suspected I was watching one of the greatest films ever made. By the last frame, I was sure of it, though I would not fault anyone from disagreeing with me vehemently on this point. I have to award it an enthusiastic 4.5 stars- the highest score I can bestow upon a film, as I always wait until a decade goes by before reevaluating a film to see if it merits the rarified designation of 5 stars: an absolute classic. As a cool added bonus, the viewer is offerred is a choice of optional narration soundtracks by cool artists like Isabella Rossillini, Eli Wallach and Laurie Anderson. (Some of these tracks were laid down during live performances with an orchestra, performing while the film is projected behind them.) In a way, it was hard to enjoy the first viewing, because I couldn’t help but begin to spontaneously compose this review in my head as I watched it, and much of the editing was so frenetic I had to close my eyes a couple times and focus on the interesting soundtrack. Writing this review was a compulsion- motivated by a desire to share this great new find with like-minded cinephiles. After reviewing my notes, I decided that it would be very much in the spirit of the film to leave the string of adjectives in tact, and just publish the list verbatim.